Defense and innovation.

• Author: Hottenstein, Peter
• Position: READERS' FORUM: VIEWS ... COMMENTS ... SUGGESTIONS - Letter to the editor

* Your article "Despite SecDef's Pleas, Pentagon Is Losing the Innovation War," (Defense Watch, June 2008) was dead on. There are so many problems within defense procurement it is difficult to know where to begin. One area that should be looked at is the drive to make all acquisitions fixed price. If you want innovation there is usually high risk associated with pursuing new technology. Forcing companies to take the full burden of risk impedes willingness to participate since the rewards usually don't warrant taking all the risk. It must be recognized that the market for military solutions is limited. Many military products have no commercial market value and therefore profits cannot be made up in volume sales. If the Defense Department wants innovation, it must accept some of the risk and pay a higher price to compensate for the narrow market and high technical and financial risks. To expect commercial firms to eagerly spend their own money to militarize or customize solutions shows a complete lack of understanding of economics and market forces.

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The department's leadership needs to wake up to the fact that unless they pay for innovative military technology, it will not magically appear at their doorstep.

Another issue you mentioned is the lengthy acquisition processes. Ever since the Boeing tanker scandal the acquisition community has answered the critics by adding layer upon layer of reviews to all procurements. The unfortunate result is longer delays for awards with no real improvement in the quality of products. Rather than address the root causes of past procurement blunders the acquisition community has become spoilers. Contracts are not developed to provide the best value, but to ensure the contracting entity has covered their back sides, in many cases ignoring the needs of the war fighter.

Almost every recent trend in defense...